• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Our Bureau

The joint proposal tabled today is "indicative of the direction of our stance in the ongoing negotiations, Mr Jaitley said adding that " these countries account for 60 per cent of the world production of rice, 35 per cent of wheat and 57 per cent of sugarcane production".

New Delhi , Aug. 20

FOLLOWING the European Union (EU) and the US recent farm framework, which completely bypassed the interests and concerns of developing countries even as it sought to impose an enhanced market access commitment on them, India with 13 other countries tabled a joint proposal on agriculture in Geneva on Wednesday.

Disclosing this to newspersons here, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr Arun Jaitley, said the joint proposal "contemplates a drastic reduction in domestic support subsidies, reduction in export subsidies and their eventual elimination and a sharp disciplining of export credit" being doled out by developed countries.

As far as tariffs go, he said, the joint proposal by India and 13 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Thailand, Paraguay and South Africa contained two proposals. For the developing countries, the tariff cuts proposed would be based on the Uruguay Round (UR) formula along with a provision for special product and special safeguard mechanism, Mr Jaitley said.

For the developed countries, he said, "we have suggested a hybrid formula of tariff cuts which include the combination of "Swiss formula" plus UR and zero tariff in several cases. We have also suggested capping of certain high tariffs and elimination of special safeguards available to the developed countries earlier". The UR reductions entail lesser reduction commitments while the Swiss formula leads to steeper reductions in tariffs.

The joint proposal tabled today is "indicative of the direction of our stance in the ongoing negotiations, the Minister said adding that " these countries account for 60 per cent of the world production of rice, 35 per cent of wheat and 57 per cent of sugarcane production". He said the joint proposal framework emphasises the need to build in specific elements of the special and differential treatment requirements of developing world such as maintained and enhancing support programmes for low income and resource poor farmers, to maintain marketing and transport subsidies on exports by developing countries and to incorporate the market access instruments of special products for rural development and food security and new special safeguard mechanisms for developing countries to safeguard against price variations/volatility and import surges.

The Minister denied any difference between the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce on the modalities for agricultural negotiations proposals and there is perfect uniformity of approach and commonalities.

The Commerce Secretary, Mr Dipak Chatterjee, said in response to a query that the joint proposal of India and 13 others proposed time-bound elimination of all export subsidies by developed countries, substantial reduction in all forms of trade-distorting domestic support, including elimination of `blue box' measures (i.e., subsidies meant to limit production in developed countries) and capping of specific green box measures such as payments decoupled from prices and production.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Rubber bullish

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line